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About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in add... (More)

About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in addition to writing editorials for more than 15 years. I have served as a director of many non-profits in the Valley and the broader Bay Area and currently serve as chair of Teen Esteem and on the advisory board of Shepherd?s Gate. I also served as founding chair of Heart for Africa and have travelled to Africa seven times to serve on mission trips. My wife, Betty Gail, has taught at Amador Valley High (from where we both graduated) since 1981. She and I both graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, as did both of my parents and my three siblings. Given that Cal tradition, our daughter went south to the University of Southern California and graduated with a degree in international relations. Since graduation, she has taken three mission trips and will be serving in the Philippines for nine months starting in September. (Hide)

Job growth vs. housing--the real numbers in Pleasanton

Uploaded: Dec 1, 2015

There been lots of rhetoric around housing in Pleasanton, particularly now that there’s a court-ordered building boom of apartments and condos.
For perspective, I asked Pamela Ott, the economic development director for the city, to track building permits over the past 10 years. Thanks to Pamela and the folks in the building department for the information.
Of note, the city has not approved for occupancy a significant rental apartment complex since the apartments on the Bernal property opened in 2002. Prior to that was the major Archstone complex in Hacienda Business Park. That’s more than a decade without additional rental housing.
Jobs in the city show an interesting trend. The high point for jobs was 2006 at 58,874. When the recession started to take hold that number dropped by 5,001 in 2007 and went down for two more years to a low of 51,374 before starting to climb back up.
The number for 2014 (the last complete year) was 55,074, still 3,500 jobs below the peak in 2006. Given the tightened commercial real estate market, next year the job numbers may surpass the 2006 peak.
The number of “finaled” building permits (meaning a building was ready for occupancy) peaked in 2006 at 508 and then plummeted to 52, 122, 55, 40, 48, 81, 33, respectively over the next several years. The minimal numbers in the last four years took place as jobs were growing.
This year, through October, there have been 408 units readied for occupancy. The majority of those (346) were senior apartments. It was dribble drabs for others—25 in large-lot single-family and 26 in small-lot, single-family.
The surprisingly bottom line is despite minimal new housing (this will change over the next two years as the new rental complexes come online), the jobs/housing balance did not change appreciably over the last 10 years.
Of course, the demand for housing did, driven by the rapid job growth in the Silicon Valley, on the peninsula and in San Francisco. It’s not likely that many San Francisco tech workers would want to live in the valley, but Pleasanton, Dublin and San Ramon are excellent communities for families looking for quality education and a suburban lifestyle.
As tough as the traffic is on Interstate 680, it’s a drive many people will make to enjoy a Tri-Valley lifestyle.

Posted by oldtimer,
a resident of Vineyard Hills,
on Dec 4, 2015 at 5:25 pm

So if I read this article correctly, Mr. Hunt is saying that housing needs are because of rapid job growth in the Silicon Valley, on the peninsula and in San Francisco and those locations are not providing enough housing for the job creation while Pleasanton jobs went down in the last 10 years but we still built housing; albeit not a lot. So we a providing more than our fair share already. Thank you Mr. Hunt for providing the info.

Posted by oldtimer,
a resident of Vineyard Hills,
on Dec 4, 2015 at 5:26 pm

So if I read this article correctly, Mr. Hunt is saying that housing needs are because of rapid job growth in the Silicon Valley, on the peninsula and in San Francisco and those locations are not providing enough housing for the job creation while Pleasanton jobs went down in the last 10 years but we still built housing; albeit not a lot. So we a providing more than our fair share already. Thank you Mr. Hunt for providing the info.